I’ve been re-reading a bunch of old issues of The Punisher. Forget about the 2004 film. Definitely forget the 1989 movie. The Marvel comics character was created in 1974 and is clearly a rip-off of The Executioner (a.k.a. Mack Bolan), Don Pendleton’s pulp hero. (And let’s not forget the 1972 novel Death Wish; gee, the [...]
Comic Lit: Groovy, Man
Nothing heavy here, man. Just a couple notes on some righteous comics from the past. Comic books have a mixed record on dealing with current events. I would argue that they did a pretty good job just before and during WWII. You may know that most of the major superheroes ended up fighting the Axis [...]
Comic Lit: What’s Wrong with Superman?
When I discuss comics, I don’t want to make a specialty out of talking about superhero books, but let me say a word about one of the most popular characters. Superman was the first true superhero comic book character. The Man of Steel was created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster and was first published [...]
Comic Lit: Intro
This will serve as an introductory post to any writing on the topic of comic books and graphic novels. I’ve been an off-and-on consumer for 31 years. Much like a couple of friends of mine (hey, Lar; hi, Dave), I have come in and dropped out in phases. The damn stupid economics of the comics [...]
Round-up: V For Very late…
I have been insanely busy at work, so this will serve as a catch-all of observations. An almost violent altercation broke out when discussing the behavior of George during this week’s Grey’s Anatomy. In recent weeks, he’s been extremely difficult in the aftermath of the Meredith Incident. I grant you that he is behaving like [...]